Defining the urban

In everyday discourse, the term urban causes few problems, but it certainly has for social theory. While the paper accepts the recent consensus that the term no longer serves to refer to a distinct object in capatalist societies, it argues that the familiar arguments have been confused by inadequate approaches to the problem of definition and inadequate concepts of space and ideology. Clarification of such definitions is a prime task of social theory and different methods of definition are discussed. The paper ends with a commentary on what is probably the best attempt at defining the urban — Raymond Williams The Country and the City.     

Palaeoecology of the Quaternary

Book reviewed in this article:
H. J. B. Birks & Hilary H. Birks: Quaternary Palaeoecology     

Proposal to redefine the Quaternary

The following proposal has been circulated, via the Executive of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), to all INQUA members for discussion. It also appears on the ICS web site (www.stratigraphy.org). Comments may be sent to John Clague, President of INQUA (jclague@sfu.ca), and Brad Pillans(brad.pillans@anu.edu.au).     

The Quaternary

In late July 2007, some 1100 Quaternary scientists gathered for a week-long conference in the tropical city of Cairns in northeast Australia for the 17th quadrennial congress of the International Union for Quaternary Research （INQUA）. Conference presentations were on topics in such diverse fields as archaeology, stratigraphy, geomorphology, palaeontology, geochemistry, hydrology, climate change and geochronology. To an outsider, the unifying theme of an INQUA Congress may be difficult to grasp, but diversity has always been a characteristic of Quaternary research, more so than for any other major period of the geological time scale.     

Quaternary International

Book reviewed in this article:
Quaternary International. Edited by N. Rutterin associationwith N. R. Catto     

Horizontal Quaternary shorelines of the Mediterranean

The high-level Quaternary shorelines of the Mediterranean are now in a fragmentary condition, but on some parts of the coast it has been possible to reconstruct one or more over a distance of many kilometers. A few of these reconstructed segments of shoreline are tilted or otherwise deformed, but the great majority appear to be virtually horizontal. The horizontal segments show no clear preference for any particular level or levels, from which it is concluded that all have been vertically displaced by earth movements.     

Quaternary research in the United States

Book reviewed in this article:
Wright. H. E., Jr. (ed.) 1983: Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States . Vol. 1 The Late Pleistocene , edited by Stephen C. Porter.     

What status for the Quaternary?

The status of the Quaternary, long regarded as a geological period effectively coincident with the main climatic deterioration of the current Ice Age, has recently been questioned as a formal stratigraphic unit. We argue here that it should be retained as a formal period of geological time. Furthermore, we consider that its beginning should be placed at the Gauss-Matuyama magnetic chron boundary at about 2.6 Ma, rather than at its current position at about 1.8 Ma. The Quaternary would be formally subdivided into the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. The global chronostratigraphical correlation table proposed is enclosed at the back of this issue.     

Vegetation history of the European Quaternary

Lang, G. 1994: Quartäre Vrgetationsgeschichte Europas. Methoden und Ergebnisse . Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart/New York. 462 pp. (177 Figures, 54 Tables, 109 pp. addenda, index lists and references).     

Quaternary vertebrate palaeontology

Book reviewed in this article:
Genoways, Hugh & Dawson, Mary (eds.) 1984: Contributions in Quaternary Vertebrate Palaeontology: A Volume in Memorial to John E. Guilday     

Quaternary of Norden

The Nordic countries have experienced multiple glaciations and intervening interglacials during the last ca. 2.5-3 million years. Although evidence from Greenland and Iceland shows that ice sheets started to expand some time before 3 Ma, little is known about the glaciations and intervening interglacials older than the last Glacial Maximum due to repeated phases of glacial erosion and reworking. The extensive Saalian glaciation （c. 140 ka BP） contributed to high sea levels in Greenland and in the Baltic area during the early part of the last interglacial （Eemian）. Temperatures were about 5 ℃ higher during the Eemian than they are today and the Greenland ice sheet was reduced to about half of its present size, causing globally higher sea levels than we have today. Ice extent in Fennoscandia was restricted during early Weichselian stadials, but middle Weichselian ice advances in Scandinavia reached as far as Denmark. During the Last Glacial Maximum, large ice sheets were present in all Nordic countries and coalesced with neighboring ice sheets. Deglaciation commenced around 17-15 ka BP in most areas and was promoted by rapidly rising global sea level and glacial isostasy. The Younger Dryas cold event（c. 12.6-11.5 ka BP） is seen as a short-term re-advance, still-stand or fluctuation of land-based ice sheet margins. Around 7-9 ka BP ice sheets had disappeared or had attained their present size. While uplift is still going on in some regions, others are subject to submergence. The different stages of development of the Baltic Sea are an example of how the intricare interplay between glacial eustasy and isostasy influences sedimentation, basin size and drainage patterns.     

Quaternary of Scotland

Book reviewed in this article:
Price, Robert J. 1983: Scotland's Environment During the Last 30,000 years     

大同第四纪火山群的活动特点

一、引言大同第四纪火山群位于山西省大同县和阳高县境内(图1),包括近5年来在大峪口,秋林地区首次发现的6个小火山。该火山群大、小火山共计31个。大同火山群南以六棱山北麓断裂为界,分布于大同盆地东部的第四纪沉积区范围。火山群南侧的六棱山和北部的小北山是由前寒武花岗片麻岩组成的山地。     

Quaternary paleoecology of the Lower Mississippi Valley

In 1938, Clair A. Brown published his classic paleobotanical discoveries from the Tunica Hills of southeastern Louisiana, indicating ice-age plant migrations of more than 1100 km. Brown collected fossils of both boreal trees such as white spruce (Picea glauca) and southern coastal plain plants from deposits mapped as the Port Hickey (Prairie) river terrace by Harold N. Fisk. Subsequent revisions of terrace mapping, radiocarbon dating, and paleoecological analysis reconciled Brown's conceptual and stratigraphic “mixing” of these two ecologically incompatible fossil plant groups. An older Terrace 2 (of Sangamonian to Altonian age) contains the warm-temperate assemblage. A younger Terrace 1 (of Farmdalian, Woodfordian, and Holocene age) includes full-glacial and late-glacial remains of both boreal and cool-temperate plants; and a warm-temperate suite of plants dates from the Holocene interglacial. New plant fossil localities with radiocarbon chronologies are now available from within the Lower Mississippi Valley of Missouri and Arkansas as well as from the adjacent Ozark Plateaus, the Interior Low Plateaus of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the bordering Blufflands of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. These studies demonstrate that glacial and interglacial patterns of vegetation have been influenced by regional changes in climate, glacial runoff, and regime of the Mississippi River.     

Quaternary glacial history of the Central Karakoram

The Quaternary glacial history of the world's highest mountains, the Central Karakoram, is examined for the first time using geomorphic mapping of landforms and sediments, and ¹⁰Be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating of boulders on the moraines and glacially eroded surfaces. Four glacial stages are defined: the Bunthang glacial stage (>0.7 Ma); the Skardu glacial stage (marine Oxygen Isotope Stage [MIS] 6 or older); the Mungo glacial stage (MIS 2); and the Askole glacial stage (Holocene). Glaciers advanced several times during each glacial stage. These advances are not well defined for the oldest glacial stages, but during the Mungo and Askole glacial stages glacial advances likely occurred at 16, 11–13, 5 and 0.8 ka. The extent of glaciation in this region became increasingly more restricted over time. In the Braldu and Shigar valleys, glaciers advanced >150 km during the Bunthang and Skardu glacial stages, while glaciers advanced >80 km beyond their present positions during the Mungo glacial stage. In contrast, glaciers advanced a few kilometers from present ice margins during the Askole glacial stage. Glacier in this region likely respond in a complex fashion to the same forcing that causes changes in Northern Hemisphere oceans and ice sheets, teleconnected via the mid-latitude westerlies, and also to changes in monsoonal intensity.